SP leader murder: HC directs lower court to expedite trial

Allahabad: The Allahabad High Court has directed a Meerut court to expedite, "without granting any unnecessary adjournment to either side", the trial in a seven-year-old murder case in which a sitting MP of the Bahujan Samaj Party is a prime accused.
The order was passed by Justice Ravindra Singh on July 12 on the writ petition of Maroof Rana, a relative of Samajwadi Party leader Muzaffar Rana, who was shot dead in Muzaffarnagar district during a clash between supporters of the SP and the Rashtriya Lok Dal in 2006, while municipal polls were underway in Uttar Pradesh.

Muzaffarnagar MP Kadir Rana, who made his Lok Sabha debut in the 2009 elections on a BSP ticket, was associated with the RLD at the time of the incident.

He was named an accused in the murder case along with his brother Noor Salim. The petitioner Maroof Rana was among those who had sustained injuries.

The trial was shifted from Muzaffarnagar to Meerut in 2007 by a High court order in the wake of allegations of political pressure from Kadir Rana, who was then an MLA of the BSP which was in power in the state at that time.

The petitioner had moved the court challenging a trial court order whereby his plea against an application by Kadir Rana and Noor Salim for recalling him and another witness in the case for "cross-examination" had been rejected despite his allegation that it was a trick by the MP and his brother to "force" the witnesses "to go hostile".

The court set aside the impugned order dated 14.05.2012 and remarked that while rejecting the petitioner`s plea, the trial court had not not taken into consideration "all the facts and circumstances of the case".

The court also vacated its stay on the trial proceedings, granted vide order dated 30.05.2012, asking the lower court to expedite the trial process "considering the gravity of the offence and other circumstances".